Massive 'dead zone' fouls gulf off Florida

Viscous, slimy water raises alarm among fishermen

By CATHY ZOLLO, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Updated
9:00 pm PST, Wednesday, March 20, 2002

NAPLES, Fla. -- Commercial fishermen along the Southwest Florida coast are reporting a massive dead zone that is almost devoid of marine life in an area of the Gulf of Mexico traditionally known as a rich fishing ground.

They've dubbed it "black water," and they're demanding that local, state and national government agencies find out what's causing it.

Scientists who have heard of the phenomenon say they, too, need answers.

"It's killed a lot of the bottom because recently a lot of little bottom plants are coming to the surface dead and rotten," said Tim Daniels, 58, a Marathon Key fish-spotting pilot who has been flying over the Gulf for more than 20 years.

Like Daniels, fishermen with decades on the water say they've often seen red tide but they've never seen anything like this -- it doesn't have a foul smell, it isn't red tide and it isn't oil. They describe it as viscous and slimy water with what looks like spider webs in it.

First sighted in January, the mass of black-colored water reached from 20 miles north of Marathon Key halfway to Naples. It stretched west almost 20 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Fishermen don't know if it's moved in from the north or offshore or if it originated in the coastal waters off Southwest Florida.

Though somewhat smaller now than descriptions from January, the mass of water is moving into the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Created by Congress in 1990, the 2,800-square-mile sanctuary adjacent to the Keys is the largest coral reef in the United States.

It includes the productive waters of Florida Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Part of the ecosystem is an extensive nursery, feeding and breeding ground that supports a variety of marine species and a multimillion-dollar fishing industry that brings in almost 20 million pounds of seafood each year.

Billy Causey, superintendent of the sanctuary, said recently that there is real concern in the scientific community about the overall health of the gulf.

Causey said the gulf is being affected by global warming, extended periods when its waters aren't cooling in the winter and human activity along coastlines.

"What we're seeing is part of a bigger picture," Causey said. "We're seeing accelerated problems around periods of elevated temperatures."

Those problems, beginning in the early 1980s, include more frequent and longer lasting coral bleaching events that by 1990 were affecting stouter coral reefs closer to shore and more adapted to wide temperature swings.

"There are places that are still beautiful but the shallow reefs would make you cry," said Causey, a Keys diver since the 1950s.

Scientists with Mote Marine Laboratory based in Sarasota said they are aware of the black-water phenomenon but hadn't yet been able to test water samples.